Java Enumeration and Iterators

Contributed by William_Wilson  
Tagged: Java programming  

What and how to use Enumerationa and Iterators

Defenitions:
Set: an unordered array of elements or objects
Collection: an ordered set
*Vectors already implement the Collection interface, but you can define your own Collection.
*ArrayLists and Vectors, both support Iterators

Enumeration
An enumeration is an object that generates elements one at a time, used for passing through a collection, usually of unknown size.
The traversing of elements can only be done once per creation.

Enumeration’s have two options:
nextElement() which returns the next object in the collection
hasMoreElements() which returns true, until the last object has been returned by nextElement()

Code Example:
import java.util.Vector;
import java.util.Enumeration;
public class EnumerationTester {
public static void main(String args[]) {
Enumeration days;
Vector dayNames = new Vector();
dayNames.add(“Sunday”);
dayNames.add(“Monday”);
dayNames.add(“Tuesday”);
dayNames.add(“Wednesday”);
dayNames.add(“Thursday”);
dayNames.add(“Friday”);
dayNames.add(“Saturday”};
days = dayNames.elements();
while (days.hasMoreElements())
System.out.println(days.nextElement()); } }

Enumerations do not allow for the modification of the collection, which is being traversed, thus the Iterators are used if this is required.

Iterators have 3 options:
hasNext() returns true if there is another element in the collection
next() which returns the next object
remove() which removes the last object taken using next()

Code Example:
import java.util.Vector;
import java.util.Iterator;
public class IteratorTester {
public static void main(String args[]) {
String[] num = {“one”, “two”, “three”, “four”, “five”,”six”, “seven”, “eight”, “nine”, “ten”};
Vector aVector = new
Vector(java.util.Arrays.asList(num));
System.out.println(“Before Vector: ” + aVector);
Iterator nums = aVector.iterator();
while(nums.hasNext()) {
String aString = (String)nums.next();
System.out.println(aString);
if (aString.length() > 4)
nums.remove(); }
System.out.println(“After Vector: ” + aVector); } }

*Why not use for(int i=0; i< v.size();i++){}?
For loops are expensive to the processor when the collection reaches large sizes, as many operations are done just to compute the first line:
int i = 0 is an assignment and creation (2 operations)
i get size, check value of i, and compare (3 operations)
i++ gets i then adds 1 to it [++i is only 2 operations] this one (3 operations)
*7/8 operations in total, each time the loop runs through

where an enumeration or iterator uses a while(){}
while(v.hasNext()) has next true or false (1 operation)
while(v.hasMoreElements()) has more true or false (1 operation)
*Only one operation per repeat of this loop

Questions/Comments as always can be sent to: william_a_wilson@hotmail.com
*OR suggestions for other Java recipes :)

-William. § (marvin_gohan)